


Dragonborn

by smilingsarah10



Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Magic, Angst, Bits of fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, Poly Ocs, Some people are dragons, some dicks are in positions of power, some people are dicks, some people have magic, there will be OC death in later chapters, there will be violence in later chapters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-11
Updated: 2020-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-01 05:21:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,012
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23109919
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smilingsarah10/pseuds/smilingsarah10
Summary: In a far away land, in a much different time, there was a royal family tied to a family born of Dragons. Two young boys fall into fast friendship that blooms as they grow into something that could be more. In an unfair and cruel world, will these two indulge in the comfort of each other, or will they succumb to the trials they are put through?
Relationships: Ryan Bergara/Shane Madej
Comments: 2
Kudos: 14





	1. Finding Your Claws

**Author's Note:**

> Hello loves! This is a work that has been sitting partially finished in my google docs for about a year now. The watcher came out at the same time as the Witcher, and, well, I was thrust back into writing this. I am hoping to post segments as they are finished: this is the childhood one. I will post the teen one within the next month, followed by young adult, adult, and epilogue, all probably on a month to month basis. 
> 
> There are references to child abuse. King Asmodeus is a grade A asshole and an over-all villain. Treat yourself kindly and avoid if it's going to be painful or triggering for you because he gets worse and does not get better. The fic will have a happy ending, but it's gonna be some ups and downs to get there. 
> 
> Love ya. <3

“Whatcha doing?” a voice rang out from the rafters of the practice shed that Shane had been using to practice his swordplay with a wooden shortsword for the last few hours. His shoes were now scuffed and he had ripped his dress shirt in a particularly impressive parry in his opinion. Unfortunately, that meant that he was going to have to stop by the royal tailor before the knighting ceremony or else he would have to face the wrath of his father.

“Practicing. I’m going to use a real sword some day, and Owen says it’s important to get used to how it feels while I’m younger.” Shane located the source of the voice: another kid, around his age, that he had seen around his and his brother’s tutor when she was not in the palace proper. “I’m Prince Shane. How did you get up there?” 

The other kid swooped down from his perch in the rafters. Shane had to quickly close his mouth so that he didn’t seem shocked. His dad assured him constantly that showing emotion was showing weakness, and he wouldn’t be caught doing that in front of a stranger. Shane watched as the wings that the kid had disappeared from his back. The kid smiled, so wide and bright that Shane couldn’t help but crack a smile as well. “My name is Ryan. I flew up there, but flying takes a lot of energy, and I guess I fell asleep. When I woke up, you were down here shoving that pointy thing around. Why don’t you just use your claws?” 

“Claws?” Shane shook his head, confused. Ryan held out one of his hands and demonstrated to Shane how if he concentrated really hard, he could make claws pop out overtop of his nails. 

“Momma says that it’ll get easier as I get older. My pop and sister can already turn into big dragons, but I can only turn into a little one, and it takes so much energy that I get stuck that way for a bit. It’s better for me to just practice small changes. When I turn 9, Momma says she’ll let me be a dragon all day and we can fly to the market together instead of having to walk there.” 

Shane nodded along, considering what Ryan was saying and very seriously informing him, “I’ve never grown claws. No one ever taught me how.” 

Ryan looked panicked, “Wait, how old are you?”

“Eight,” Shane held up his age on his hands as if Ryan somehow wouldn’t understand unless he could see it.

Ryan looked at him gravely. “I’ve had mine since I hatched. Maybe you lost yours.”

Shane looked at him, worried. “I don’t think I ever hatched. My mom died when I was born.”

Ryan’s frown got deeper. After a moment, he tugged on Shane’s ripped sleeve. “Come on. Momma can teach you how to find your claws and maybe even fix your shirt if you ask her nicely.”

Shane followed after Ryan, listening to him talk about turning into different types of dragons and what it was like. It was soothing, having someone else do all the talking and not expecting Shane to contribute much. He felt like it was easier to organize his thoughts when his father wasn’t looming over him poised to strike if Shane said the wrong thing or even the right thing in the wrong way. Before Shane realized, they were at a small house just on the other side of the palace gardens across from the training grounds.

Franchesca, Shane and Owen’s tutor, popped out of the front door with a basket of linens on her hip. Her eyes lit up at seeing Ryan, then widened a little in Shock at seeing Shane with him. “Ry, I see you’ve made a friend.”

Shane watched as Ryan ran up to Franchesca and hopped into her arms as she dropped the basket. The basket floated about four inches off the ground, keeping the linens from getting dirty again. “Shane, this is my momma. Momma, no one has ever taught Shane how to use his claws. Oh, and he broke his shirt.”

“Sweetie, Shane is a human prince, like me. He doesn’t have claws like you and Lainey and papa.” 

Shane looked at Franchesca hard for a minute before blinking and asking, “Franny, you’re a prince?” 

Franchesca looked up to the heavens, and Shane couldn’t help but think that she looked a little like the ladies on the stained glass windows in the castle’s chapel. “Come now, boys. You can ask me all the questions you want while I fix Prince Shane’s shirt. We wouldn’t want to miss Lainey’s ceremony today.”


	2. School's for Fools

“Franny,” Shane interrupted a silence where he was supposed to be reading about the history of the kingdom but was instead thinking about his new best friend and how he was not being forced to sit through six hours a day of this. 

Franchesca looked up from her notes, giving Shane her full attention. Shane liked that about her. She never shied away from his questions or called them dumb like his father did. “Franny,” he started again, “How come Ryan doesn’t have to come to class with Owen and I?” 

Owen looked up at Shane from his much bigger book. His glasses slid down his nose making him look older than his 14 years would make it seem. “He goes to school with Elaina, right?”

Shane thought over that for a moment. “Why don’t we go to the same school that they do?”

Franchesca’s smile seemed a little sad. “You’re safer here in the castle while you’re still growing.”

Owen took that in stride, settling back down to read. Shane, however, still had questions. “Why don’t you teach them though? You teach us!” 

“King Asmodeus thought it best that you two not be distracted…” Franchesca’s expression was closed off. 

Owen’s head snapped up from his book again. “Wait, we could have had Elaina and Ryan here with us?” 

“Boys, what on earth does this have to do with the history of Nestor?” Franchesca deflected. 

“Our history is important to understand, too.” Shane pouted. He did, however, finish reading the section he had been assigned well enough to answer the questions that Franchesca came up with. 

“Franny,” Shane started again, after she had finished asking Owen his questions. She looked up at him, a smile tugging on the edges of her lips, ruining her neutral expression. “How come you don’t use your magic here in the castle?” 

“You know King Asmodeus doesn’t allow magic inside the walls,” she responded patiently, knowing that Shane was going to ask why next, as this was not the first time they had this conversation. “And you already know that it’s because he believes that your mom was cursed, and he wants to keep you both safe.”

“Did you know our mom?” Owen asked as they packed up their bags for lunch. He asked it quietly, as if he would summon their father just by asking what was normally a taboo question. No one spoke about the Queen where the King could hear. Not even her children. 

Franchesca softened, if that was possible, taking each of the boy’s hands as they walked out of the schoolroom and towards her cottage. Owen blushed, unused to having to hold an adult woman’s hand, but taking it for the comfort it provided. “I knew Sadie before your father did actually. She and I were very close. We studied magic together. After she was betrothed to your father, she introduced me to Gideon.”

Shane decided to take a risk on another question since Owen hadn’t gotten into any trouble. “Mom used magic, too?” 

“Can you both keep a secret?” Franchesca asked, tugging the door shut behind them as they kicked off their shoes, nodding and promising that they could. 

“Your mother was the best and strongest witch I had ever seen. She was actually much stronger than your father. I don’t think that he liked that very much,” she pulled some goodies out of the fridge to let the boys choose what they wanted to eat. “But that’s very much in the past. No use in lingering on that. Would you two like some tea?”

Shane recognized a subject change. He watched courtiers do it almost constantly in the castle. “Will you teach me how to use magic like mom?” he blurted, not wanting to lose the opportunity to. Owen dropped the sandwich he had picked up in shock. 

“You’re a bit young to be a witch, darling,” Franchesca pat his head and handed Owen’s sandwich back to him. “Ask me again when you turn ten. Until then, I have some books that we can read on magic users in Nestor.” 

Shane and Owen groaned in unison as Franchesca bustled to the living room to grab a few more oversized textbooks. 


	3. Blues and Hues

Shane cradled his arm close to his body. He was sure that his father hadn’t meant to grab him so hard. The important thing was that his books were safely hidden, and he had only found one magic book that Shane would have to replace. He was trying to explain this to Ryan: that this was normal for the palace and that the bruises would fade. Ryan was not having it. 

“He’s not allowed to do that! That’s not how being a dad works! He can’t just hurt you and destroy your stuff!” Ryan was spitting as much fire as an eleven year old dragon could possibly spit. Shane moved his stack of books to his other side so that there was no chance that they could be touched by the flame. 

Ryan noticed Shane flinch away and reined himself in. He knew it wouldn’t do any good to rattle him more after an incident with the king. “I just wish I was older. He wouldn’t treat you like that if I was around, and you know that I’m going to be your personal guard when we get old enough.” 

Shane felt him slide down the wall to sit with him on the floor of his quarters. The King had left Owen alone more once he got Elaina as a guard. Unfortunately, that meant that his focus had shifted heavier onto Shane. 

“Let me see your arm,” Ryan gently prompted. Shane rolled his sleeve up so that Ryan could gently turn his forearm so that he could see the blooming bruises. He concentrated as best he could and then blew out a chilly breath right onto the bruise. It wrapped around as if it were a cold compress and relieved some of the ache and coloring. 

“On my way back from school, I found a cool cave that was kind of out of the way. I thought maybe it might work as a place to start my hoard,” Ryan whispered as he turned Shane’s arm back and forth to assess his range of motion. 

Shane knew that Ryan had been looking for an appropriate hoard location since the year prior when his mom had finally let him start flying and transforming without any supervision. “Yeah?” Shane asked, still not quite feeling up to talking all that much. 

“Yeah! I was thinking that maybe we could grab some of the throw pillows from in here and take them out while the King is with dad, distracted,” Shane nodded, not realizing until he felt relief that he was a little afraid of being left out of his friend’s plans. “I was actually thinking, if you wanted to, you could store your magic books there. That way the King wouldn’t have a reason to do this anymore.” 

Shane wanted to tell Ryan that the King would find a reason to continue doing “this”: that it hadn’t begun with his interest in magic and it wouldn’t end with it. He couldn’t find the right words though, so he just took Ryan’s hands with a nod. They gathered as many soft things as they could fit in their satchels, and Ryan led the way out past the palace garden edges, over the stream, and up against a rock face. Behind the trunk of an ancient looking tree, the mountain split, and Shane peered into the tunnel. Ryan blew a little flame into an alcove Shane hadn’t been able to see, and a whole line of candles came to life illuminating the path. 

Ryan blushed, but was beaming as he explained that he had already been out to make sure that Shane would be able to see into the cave since he didn’t have the nightvision that Ryan had. They went down the tunnel together, the path getting skinnier the farther they went in before opening up wide to reveal a beautiful cavern within. There was a twinkling bed of flowing water that cut the cavern into two parts with what looked like a natural land bridge connecting them. On the far side of the bridge was an old rickety desk surrounded by empty bookshelves. On the nearside, there was a giant pit that had a few modest pillows and blankets tucked into it already. 

“I figured the far side is where you could practice your magic and store your stuff since I didn’t think you would want it in the castle, and the nearside is where I could make a napping nest and start my hoard once I figure out what I want to collect. That is, if you want to practice here. I kind of just assumed. Sorry, do you want to…”

Shane couldn’t find words to respond, was having trouble figuring out his emotions, and found himself squeezing his friend into a tight hug. Ryan tensed, then relaxed, wrapping his arms around his friend. “Yeah, I like it here a lot, too,” Ryan confirmed quietly. 


	4. Friends Forever?

Shane hadn’t really expected a gift from his father on his thirteenth birthday and was rather suspicious of the way he had smiled when he called Ryan and Shane into his study the day after the knighting ceremony had taken place. Ryan had just been excited to get to spend the day with Shane, even if it meant having to tag along to all of Shane’s princely obligations, and had informed Shane of as much as they had been walking over to the palace. 

Shane admitted that it was pleasant to have the company. Just having Ryan around to see the dumb stuff he put up with and laugh at along with him afterwards made him feel like a weight had been lifted. It was no longer a mystery why Owen had seemed so relaxed the last few years if that was how he also felt around Elaina. Ryan just brought a light with him wherever he went. 

Even his father’s study hadn’t seemed so claustrophobic and scary. Shane had marched up to his spot in front of the desk, standing taller with the knowledge that Ryan was a customary two paces behind him. Gideon, Ryan’s father, followed in afterwards. He had been accompanying them around as was customary in the transition period of a new post being added. Although he had kept his stoic guard persona up well, Shane could tell he was so proud of Ryan. 

“Father, you asked to see me?” Shane asked, waiting for his father to look up from the scroll in his hand. 

“Ah yes. My youngest son, finally a man. Happy birthday, Shane,” he had said, regal and aloof as he was when he was not livid. Shane was thankful. 

“Thank you, father,” Shane shifted his weight from foot to foot, waiting for whatever the King had actually called him in for. 

“Now, I know that you have shown an unfortunate interest and skill in the magic arts,” Shane held in a shiver, trying not to let his mind drift to the ways that his father had tried to _dissuade_ his affinity for magic. “In my travels, I found a book you might enjoy. I had it personalized for you.”

King Asmodeus handed the book across the desk to Shane. He took it, reverently, staring at the worn gold embossing in the old leather. It looked as if it was a book of runes, one of Shane’s specialties under Franchesca’s tutelage. “Thank you, father. I… it’s… stunning.” 

“Yes, well. The rule still stands. No magic in the palace proper. You’ll have to take this wherever you are storing the other ones,” the eerie smile returned, darkening his features and eyes. “Ryan, did you know that your father bears many of the runes in that book?”

Shane could feel Ryan tense. It was not often that he had to interact directly with the King and had developed quite a dislike for him in his time knowing Shane. “Yes, your Majesty. I have not covered runes yet in my dragonborn classes yet, but I know that his are for honor, integrity, love, and peace.” 

The king laughed, altogether unkindly. Shane flinched this time, but his father’s attention was thankfully on Ryan who held his composure as if he was trained to do so. “As well as the mandatory marks of the guard: power, ambition, drive, and the mark of the warrior. Runes can be powerful assets to a kingdom, and none bear them better than the dragonborn.” 

Shane had learned that the dragon class had been most susceptible to influence of runes. Before the treaty between magic users and non users, colonial runes had been used to enslave and drive mad the dragonborn because of this susceptibility. Franchesca had made Shane swear to never use his magic to harm someone who meant no harm to himself, and he had taken that oath seriously. 

Before Ryan could respond, the King continued. “Franchesca has told me that Shane has been practicing runes on you in henna. It is kind of you to let an apprentice practice like that. Shane has never been good at writing or art. I hope you haven’t suffered any ill effects of a misdrawn rune.”

Shane wished dearly that he could see Ryan’s face. He needed to know if he was keeping his cool, or laughing at him behind his back, or enraged that the King would put down Shane in front of him. Shane felt he could almost grasp at Ryan’s emotions if he concentrated, but he wasn’t entirely sure until Ryan opened his mouth, growling in the only way a thirteen year old dragon could. “My mom says that he’s the best at runes she has seen since Queen Sadie, my Lord. I would trust him with my life, much less let him use me as a canvas to practice.”

Shane couldn’t believe that Ryan would bring up the Queen directly to the King’s face when he knew that the King had courtiers executed for less. To Shane’s surprise, after a beat of tense silence, the King laughed. Shane wished it had done anything to lighten the mood, but, as before, it was the kind of laugh that made you feel like you were swimming through the tension on a soup spoon, about to be devoured by something much bigger than yourself. “Oh, Gideon. Your boy has fire that I haven’t seen since you took the mantle. A wild one, yes. You be careful with those runes, boys. Wouldn’t want you to get hurt.” 

They bowed, recognizing a dismissal when they saw one. Shane could tell Gideon wanted to talk to Ryan, potentially scold him for his attitude towards the King, but was called back in to attend the king, postponing that conversation. Ryan and Shane let the door close with a click before they sprinted off towards the cave. 

Shane had enchanted the candles to last forever and only light for Ryan and Shane’s presence (with Franny’s help of course, he still had much to learn), and they had settled into the space nicely. Ryan flopped down into his hoard of pillows, blankets, and other soft mattresses that he had been collecting. He had collections of other things: his taste would settle as he aged, but especially now as he was growing and shedding scales regularly, it was nice to have soft spaces in the cave. 

“Well,” he sighed, trying to catch his breath while he looked at Shane expectantly. “Let’s crack that bad boy open and see what the King gave you.” 

Shane eyed the book in his hand warily. Something was off, but Ryan was already shucking his tops so that Shane could draw the runes onto his bare skin. “Usually I wait until Franny approves runes before we do these, Ry. I’m not sure we should just go nuts.”

Ryan rolled his eyes. “Listen, mom is in the cottage right around the corner. If something goes wrong, we can just call for her, you know? Relax. Just pick a dumb one like joy. The worst that could happen is that I will be stuck with it until the henna wears off.”

Shane tried to let Ryan’s confidence rub off on him as he made his way over to his magic bag to get the bottles of henna he used for rune work. Once he was settled in behind his friend, he flipped open the book to what looked like the index. Scanning through the options, he saw one that he had never seen before: friendship. “How about friendship?” 

Ryan laughed, the opposite of his father’s: bright and bubbly and like it could fill a room. “We are already best friends. I don’t think adding a rune is going to make it any stronger.”

“It’s a good one for practice then,” Shane laughed, too, giving Ryan as brilliant a smile as he could manage, mainly from how excited he was to hear Ryan call him his best friend. “Hold still then.”

Rune work was all about intention. Shane and Ryan both knew that focusing on whatever memories were warranted made the rune stronger, so as Shane mixed the liquid into its applicator, they quietly settled in thinking about friendship. Shane hoped that Ryan was thinking about their friendship in particular, but was too embarrassed about it to actually confirm with his friend. 

Instead Shane focused on some of his favorite memories from the last few years. One night, after his father had sent him to bed without supper for a poor timed joke in front of a princess from another kingdom, he had discovered Ryan in dragon form tapping on his window. Gideon had seen Shane get sent away, and Franchesca had made some food for him since she knew Ryan was going to sneak out to comfort his friend anyways. They had laughed and snacked and talked until the wee hours of the morning. Eventually, Shane had fallen asleep, and when he woke up, Ryan had snuck back out and home. 

The first leg of the rune seemed to sparkle against Ryan’s back as Shane continued to look down at the book and loop the top of the hoop in the appropriate manner. This one was more complicated than it looked at first. Seeming to sense his uncertainty, Ryan piped up. “You remember that time that we snuck out to catch the solstice star?” 

Shane snorted, but the memory steadied his hand. “Yeah, and you heard from Lainey that you could only catch a star if you were naked? Your mom’s face was hilarious when she found us running around that field starkers.” 

Shane finished the last loop of the rune right as Ryan chuckled at the memory. Off the page and on Ryan’s skin, the loops looked a little like the link of a chain… 

Ryan’s chuckle turned into a shout as the henna rune glowed red and then started to burn into his skin. Shane screamed, pulling away at first before remembering a miniscule amount of healing magic and trying to apply it to the rune. Ryan sobbed before violently and involuntarily shifting between his dragon form and human form. Shane, not knowing what else to do, called out for Franchesca, who he knew had helped safe guard the cave in case of emergency. 

As he heard the “pop,” of her arrival in the cavern, Shane fell to his knees, a searing pain in the middle of his back knocking him off his feet with a cry. All of the sudden, it felt as though he was watching the scene in front of him play out in slow motion from somewhere other than his body. Franchesca was calling out to Shane, but he couldn’t hear what she was saying or read her lips. She did the same with Ryan, pouring some of her magic into stabilizing his form. 

Both of their bodies were lying still, Shane crumpled into his henna plate and Ryan as a dragon nestled into his pillows, the rune still glowing red around his scales. Franchesca took one look at the rune and gasped, running her fingers along it while tears started to trickle from her eyes. Frantic, she looked around for the rune book that Shane had been using. He watched her flip through, noting that it was a gift, then scanning and scanning for something until she found the page that he had been on. She took a deep breath, steeling her features before moving Shane’s body onto the pillows and preparing to teleport somewhere. Shane wished that he could hear and wished that he could follow her, but was sure that he was wrong on both counts. 

To his surprise, his wishes were granted. He was floating now above two places in a vast dark cavern. On one side was Ryan’s hoard where their bodies still lay. On the other side was his Dad’s personal study where Franchesca had apparently popped back into existence with a roar. “What is the meaning of this?” she yelled, the only thing louder than her being Shane’s gift that she slammed onto his desk. 

The King did not even look up from the letter he was working on. “Come now, Franny. I know that even you have seen a book before.” 

“Where did you get this rune book?” she seethed. The King looked up with a mean grin. 

“I run into all sorts of things on my travels. I happened upon that one just a fortnight ago, and because you have gotten my son interested in the dark arts, I figured that he would appreciate something new to try on Ryan,” the King twisted his face into what was obviously mock concern, “Why? Nothing has gone wrong, has it?” 

Franchesca held her ground. “You know exactly what has happened. Why did you have someone change the label for the rune of “entrapment” to read “friendship”?” 

Shane felt guilt creep around the edges of his vision, knocking him back away from the scene in his father’s office towards his body in the hoard. He had trapped Ryan, his best friend. He had broken Franchesca’s trust. He had messed everything up and it was all his fault that Ryan was knocked out and stuck as a dragon and he was never going to want to be Shane’s friend again and… and… 

Before Shane’s panic could knock him entirely out of his vision, a calming voice that he had never heard before soothed him from the darkness. “Hush, love, and focus. I can’t keep you suspended here for long and you need to see this. You need to know the truth..” 

Shane focused as hard as he could, the office scene looking and sounding like it was happening outside of water that he was stuck under.

“Well now that Ryan is tied to Shane, I guess he has better incentive to take care of him. And I’m sure that this tie will keep the rumors of your husband stepping down from the royal guard at bay,” the King said with a smirk that read as if the cat had the canary cornered. 

“You are an evil man. If Sadie was here she would have destroyed you for this,” Franchesca stated, frosty tone falling off her tongue. 

“Well, she wasn’t strong enough to do it then, and she’s gone now. Did you know that her witch’s blessing when she passed only protected you? Not our children, not our country, not me, just you. Tell me, why would she waste something so precious on someone as weak as you? Someone that she had enslaved in the same way my son did yours years and years prior?” the King’s icy demeanor cracked the longer he spoke until he was only an inch from Franchesca’s face. 

Franchesca did not flinch. “I was never enslaved, and neither is my son. You will never understand the bond between Sadie and I, and your jealousy is pitiful. The pendulum of time will always swing towards justice and truth; do you know where you’re standing Asmodeus?” 

Shane fell back towards his body, whatever gentle hands had been holding him between worlds suddenly, but gently, allowing him to return unscathed. He took stock of the mark on his back, a mirror of the rune he had placed on Ryan, as Ryan started to stir beside him with a disgruntled puff of smoke. Before Shane could ask of his health, Franny popped back in front of him. Shane could read the relief on her face as she noticed that they were both awake. 

“I didn’t mean to…” Shane started, tears welling up in his eyes. Franny pulled him to her side in a strong hug. It felt so much like the feeling he had from the voice from the dream that he cried harder. 

“Runes are all about intention. You thought that you were painting a friendship rune, and so that is the flavor that the rune will take on. That rune ties the two of you together, for better or worse. The pain you feel, Ryan feels. The joy that Ryan feels, you feel also. One day, you might come to appreciate this connection for what it is. For now, we will need to work on balance and discipline, or else one of you will accidentally barge all over the other’s mental boundaries,” she explained gently. 

Ryan looked up at them, still stuck as a small dragon. He let out a rumble, only, for the first time, Shane could understand him perfectly. _“What do you mean by mental boundaries?”_


	5. Cheating or A Tactical Advantage

The sun was hot and Ryan would much rather be out flying with Shane than supervising Shane and Owen’s combat practice, but Royals did as Royals do, so they were stuck there for most of the afternoon once court was over in the morning. Ryan sighed as Lainey landed Owen on his ass for the third time in a row. 

Shane, on the other hand, looked riveted. Ryan didn’t have to concentrate too hard to tap into Shane’s thought stream: _“if he had just parried instead of thrusted and stopped assuming that Lainey was going to fight like a human… maybe he’ll try the flip next time… Block! BLOCK! Oh, ouch.”_ Ryan looked away from Shane to see Owen on the ground again, laughter bubbling out of Lainey’s throat as Owen looked up, smitten. 

“Can we please go now?” Ryan groaned aloud. “I am so tired of watching them flirt with their fists or a sword or whatever. It was annoying the first time, and it’s only gotten older the longer we’ve been standing here.” He walked up to hip check Shane who was primly ignoring him in favor of watching the start of the next round. Ryan took a moment to appreciate his friend. He had gotten a little taller - if Owen was anything to go by, he would only keep growing - and had surpassed Ryan in the last year. It didn’t mean much since Ryan could technically be a super large dragon, but it was still a milestone for them both. 

“My thoughts not engaging enough to keep you entertained?” Shane smirked, taking the guilt and panic out of Ryan before it had time to settle. They had a couple of years of practice figuring out what each other's boundaries were when it came to being mentally and physically linked. Ryan had forbid Shane from sparring outside of sparring practice after waking up from a nap feeling like he’d been punched in the gut with the butt of a sword. Shane had awkwardly approached Ryan about not “coming of age” quite so much until they could figure out how to not feel each others emotions and thoughts. But the most important was trying to untie and lock down their own thought streams. The first few weeks after being bonded had felt like drinking from a firehose: their thoughts, emotions, and sensations all mixed into one big disconcerting bundle. Now it was like a water fountain: they could pop in and out when they felt like it as long as they knew the other person would not mind. 

“Anything would be better than just standing around at this point. And you are better at strategizing than I am. At least when it comes to fighting.” It was true - Shane was hopeless when it came to people, preferring books and academia and horses and swords to anything that had to do with socializing. Ryan on the hand was excellent at court, understood how to read people better than Shane could ever hope to. 

“If you’re so bored, you could come challenge me yourself, pipsqueak!” Lainey yelled, teasing Ryan just enough for him to know it was a friendly challenge, but a challenge nonetheless. Ryan grinned, excited to have something to do. 

Lainey was around the same age as Owen, meaning that she had grown into her gangly young adult body just as he had. She towered over Ryan, much to his chagrin. She reminded him of that everytime she could - him walking out onto the turf was no exception. She swooped beside him, rucking up his hair before he could shake her off. “Best to three. No weapons - no claws. Mom would kill me if I accidentally hurt you,” she set the terms, shucking off her sword to the attendant nearby. 

Ryan had just enough time to nod before she launched towards him, tiny from afar to pick up speed and then increasing in size to increase the momentum of her impact. Ryan barely had time to launch himself up in the air and over her body, managing to catch her larger versions tail intending to roll her to the ground. Instead, Ryan was pulled along behind her as she skidded to a stop, and in a genius move, fell backwards, effectively pinning Ryan to the ground. With that the first round was over. 

Not for the first time, Ryan wished that he was just a fraction of a second faster, or that he had the foresight to see what was happening objectively instead of relying on his nerves. Just as Lainey launched them into the second round, Ryan found himself looking up to where Shane and Owen were standing on the balcony, always watching, when he had a flash of inspiration. He dodged Lainey’s first lunge and tapped back into Shane’s thoughts. He was moving slower than Ryan, so he only got flashes, but seeming to catch on, Shane’s thoughts became one word actions. _“Duck! Jump! Left! Roll! There!!”_

Ryan snuck into one of Lainey’s blindspots and flipped her to the ground. He stood up and hooted in victory, flashing a beaming smile up at Shane. Shane smirked but waved him off, _“Stop cheating.”_

 _“It’s not cheating! It’s… a tactical advantage!”_ Ryan thought back just as Shane yelled, “Duck!”

It was too late - Lainey had Ryan pounced, and the impact had them both giggling on the ground as Lainey blew a raspberry into Ryan’s neck. Ryan snuck a glance up to Shane on the balcony, tucking away the fond but exasperated look he was giving him. They’d have to practice, but Ryan could definitely see the benefits to their shared connection.


End file.
